Hello all! Here's Chapter V!

Shameless plug: I am now alternating another story with this one – IT in Oz. Go check it out!

Also here's my cast list:

Frex – Sean McCourt

Elphaba – Christine Dwyer

Nessa – Emily Ferranti

Shell – Mason Cook

Nanny – Olga Merediz

Enjoy!

Chapter 5

Nessa and Nanny arrived at the handball field just as practice was starting. "Now, we can only stay for an hour, you know, duckie," Nanny reminded her young charge. "Your father told me that you have physical therapy this afternoon."

Nessa groaned; she had forgotten about PT. "Ugh. Right. But it's okay; I always miss them." To Nessa's recollection, she had never lied before in her life. But to her, physical therapy was an annoying obstacle that prevented her from doing what a normal girl her age would be doing: in this case, watching the school's most athletic (and handsome) boys do what they did best.

But Nanny saw right through her. "You are as bad a liar as your mother. But I pretended to believe your mother when she told me that it was just coincidentally her time of the month when the Maurgreve of Pertha's son was visiting Colwin Grounds, so I'm going to pretend to believe you too." She turned to watch the handball players. "Let's see what these young men have to offer! Oh, I am far too old to say something like that."

Meanwhile, back at Colwin Grounds, Frex was feeling what he had never thought he would feel: embarrassment because of his second daughter. "I am so sorry," he said to Nessa's new PT, Chillia. "Nessa usually never misses appointments. We just got our family nanny to be her full time aide, and … I have to believe she's okay."

"You know what, you're upset; I'll get out of your nose," Chillia said understandingly. "Just send me a check."

"A check? Why would I send you a check?"

Chillia smirked. "For my time, of course. And I took a train all the way from Center Munch."

"Oooh. You're a pushy little Munchkin, aren't you? Shell, get in here!" When Shell arrived in the drawing room a clock tick later, Frex said, "It's time for your physical therapy."

"Um … I'm not Nessa," Shell pointed out, a little confused. "I'm one of the other ones, remember?"

"Yeah, I know who you are. Your sister's nowhere to be found. We pay for physical therapy; we get physical therapy." As Frex left the drawing room, he demanded to Chillia, "Heal him."

Chillia was a little thrown at suddenly working with a different Thropp sibling, but she quickly adapted. She guided Shell to one side of the drawing room. "Okay, walk to the other side of the room for me. Just walk how you normally walk. No shame in not making it."

"I'm pretty sure I can make it," Shell said with a small smile. He started walking, proud of himself for tolerating his rich father's insane thriftiness, but he only got about halfway across the room before Chillia stopped him.

"Whoa, stop. Is that really how you normally walk?"

"Um … yeah."

Chillia shook her head. "No. This is all wrong. You're a petit walker. You pronate with a twenty degree kickout. I mean, it's fine for today, but is this your long time walking plan?"

Shell began to get a little worried. "Well, it was!"

"It's okay! We'll get you there! It'll take some work, but you can do it. Let's start over back at that wall."

Frex planted himself in the foyer to wait for Nessa and Nanny, and he waited about forty clock ticks, in which Chillia left, mumbling about Shell's walking, before Nessa and Nanny came in. "Hi, Father," Nessa said sheepishly.

"What is the meaning of this?" Frex almost yelled at Nanny. "I TOLD you that Nessa had physical therapy, and you bring her home almost TWO HOURS LATE! What is your explanation for this?! Actually, no, I don't wanna hear it! I can't believe I have to fire two people in two days!"

"Father, no!" Nessa exclaimed, suddenly feeling guilty. "Please don't fire Nanny. It wasn't her fault; it was mine. I persuaded her to stay after school so I could miss PT. You should punish me, not her. But you've never punished me before, so I'll help you. I'm grounded for two weeks, okay? I'm not allowed to leave the house except for school and chapel. Okay? I'll be in my room."

Once Nessa had rolled away, Nanny gave Frex a pointed look and said, "What can I say? She wants to be grounded. You better come through."

Later on that night, Frex heard a knock on his office door. "Enter," he said.

Elphaba practically bounded in, thinking she had finally done something that would make her father proud. "I pranked Mayor Bfee!" she declared happily. "I dumped all our weeds into his courtyard! Lousy neighbors, right?"

"No, Elphaba, you don't understand," Frex groaned. "We're not jerks; we're idiots. Idiots don't intentionally screw things up. They just can't help it because, well, they're idiots. Jerks, on the other hand, do things like dumping their weeds into their neighbors' courtyards."

Elphaba bit her lip, disappointed that her plan to please her father hadn't worked out. "So what do we do?"

Frex thought for a moment. "We can't let Bfee know we did this. So we have to make it look like we were pranked too …" A crazy idea came to him, an idea that initially seemed completely out of the question, but it was the best idea he had. "Alright, Elphaba, I have a solution. You're going to use your … talent to make more weeds, but this is the only time I'm letting you use it, understood?"

"Yes, Father," Elphaba said with a nod, trying to conceal how pleased she was. "I think I can do it."

As Frex passed Nessa's room on the way downstairs, he heard Nanny talking. "Okay, duckie, just hold onto my neck, that's it. Oooph! Lurline, you're getting heavy! We need to get you on a diet. The boys will like you better if you stay thin too, trust me." And then Frex heard Nessa laugh. Maybe Nanny wasn't so bad after all …

Elphaba wasn't exactly sure how she was going to make more weeds. She could count on one hand how many times she had used her magic on purpose, and if she was being perfectly honest with herself, she didn't really understand how her powers worked. But as she thought about it, she recalled a time in primary school when she had wished her teacher's hair would turn blue, and suddenly the teacher's hair was blue, and the whole class was in uproar. Was that really all she had to do? Just wish for weeds? Elphaba thought hard about how weeds grew: uncontrollably, as if they were the tumors of the garden, eventually taking away resources from flowers and trees and other "good" plants. I want there to be weeds in this courtyard. Not out of control weeds, but just enough weeds to be a nuisance. Just starting to take over …

Elphaba jumped when Frex put a hand on her shoulder. "You're one odd girl, you know that, right?" She looked down to see a crop of weeds growing at her feet. Frex smiled a little. "Come on. Let's pull these and put them where Bfee can see them."

The next day, Shell was thrillified to run into Tilla between third and fourth hour. "Tilla!" he greeted her happily. "Hi! How are you? I'm doing great, because yesterday I found out that the University of the Emerald City is doing some research on whether paramecia survive better in saltwater or fresh water! Isn't that cool?"

"Yeah, I heard about that study too!" Tilla said. "I'm really curious to hear what they find out!" Then, to Shell's utter delight, she indicated down the hall with her head. "Walk with me to class?"

"S-Sure." But Shell suddenly felt awkward walking. Walk to the other side of the room for me. Walk how you normally walk. You're a petit walker. Stupid petit walker! You'll never amount to anything! "Oz, she didn't even say that last part!"

"Are you okay?" Tilla asked, concerned.

"Just go!" As Tilla just about ran to her next class, Shell called after her, "Why did you have to make me walk?!"

That afternoon, Elphaba was doing homework by the living room window, when she looked up to see something very interesting. "Father!" she called. When Frex came over, she pointed out the window. "Bronzeman's getting blamed for our weeds."

Frex looked out the window and saw Mayor Bfee and Senator Bronzeman in a heated argument across the way. He shrugged. "That's his problem. And it serves him right for voting against my health care bill."

Elphaba considered that for a moment. "But isn't that kind of a jerk move? I never thought someone else would get blamed for what we, I, did. And maybe if we bail him out, Bronzeman might change his mind about your bill."

Frex nodded. "Good point. Nessa! Shell! Nanny! Living room! Now!" When everyone arrived, he announced, "We're going across the road to make a statement to Mayor Bfee. Nobody embarrass me now, okay? And Nessa?"

"Yes, Father?"

"You're grounded. Officially."

Nessa lit up. "You mean that?"

"Absolutely, pet. Alright, people, let's move!"

The Thropps (plus Nanny) arrived at Mayor Bfee's house to find Bfee still arguing with Bronzeman. "I don't believe your gall!" Bfee yelled at Bronzeman. "It's bad enough that you throw these wild parties that my family and I can hear as we're trying to go to sleep, but now you dump your weeds into my yard like you think you're better than me!"

"I didn't do it!" Bronzeman insisted. "I was in Gilikin yesterday; just ask my wife!"

"Your third wife, you man-wh-…"

"Stop!" Frex ordered, coming up to the scene with his family. "It wasn't Bronzeman. It was us."

"You?" Bfee repeated, surprised.

Frex sighed. "I'm sorry. We just thought it would be a twisted way to welcome you to the neighborhood. You're a nice man, Bfee, so you deserve to know: we're lousy neighbors! We're not going to fix up our house or our yard. If we receive your packages, they will become our packages."

"And we're definitely going to swim in all of your pools," Nessa said.

"We already did," Elphaba added.

"I saw a snake in our backyard about two weeks ago," Shell said. "Where it is now is anyone's guess."

"L-Let me get this straight," Bfee stammered. "You pranked us and then tried to cover it up ('cause I see your little weed pile over there). You all are awful! And you know it! And you've decided you're not going to do anything about it. You people are jerks."

"No!" Elphaba insisted, putting her arm on her father's shoulder. "We're idiots."

As the Thropp family started heading back to Colwin Grounds, Nanny turned around and assured Bfee, "I just work here."

Thanks for reading!

Cheers,

Elle Dottore